When the then still young Frankfurt label Cocoon Recordings discovered the long-playing format with its Compilation A in Summer 2000, probably nobody could have, even approximately, foreseen the success story of this series.
Bipolar implies, among other meanings, the opposing poles within an electrical device (e.g. Transistor), that, although those poles are pointed in different directions, work together as an unit serving a certain purpose.
Matthew Dear’s Black City can’t be found on any map. It’s a composite, an imaginary metropolis peopled by desperate cases, lovelorn souls, and amoral motives. Like most literary Gothams, Black City is a place to love and hate, as seedy as a nightclub’s back room and as seductive as the promise of power.
It’s set to be a forecast on the upcoming Ibiza Season and takes in everything from tracky tech-house to deep techno via rolling minimal with producers from all over the globe making an appearance. The mix goes from heads down to arms in the air and back again with the likes of Loco Dice’s studio wingman Martin Buttrich, Detroit techno man Ryan Crosson and pal Guti, 8Bit Records boss Gorge and our recently tipped Leeds based newcomer, Youandeawn, all having their tracks used.
Kode9‘s grasp on the throat of bass music in 2010 is almost unparalleled. His trend setting record label, Hyperdub, is in its sixth year of viral contagion; he’s become a published author on the theory of sound abuse and sonic frequencies being used as weaponry in his book Sonic Warfare and his production work has mutated from an almost simplistic marriage of beats and sine waves into a fusion of dance floor Ebonics and discordant synths.